This is the shortlist I’d hand a European founder looking for a digital marketing agency for startups, somewhere between seed and Series A. Thirteen agencies, grouped by what you’d be buying from them.
How it was put together: prices, terms, stage and location come from each agency’s own website and nowhere else. No price on the site means the entry says “Not published”. (I worked at a marketing agency in New York years ago, so I know how much a services page can leave out.)
Eight of the thirteen are based in Europe. The five US ones made it because each publishes something a seed-stage team can use, like stage tiers, short terms or a price worth measuring against. Three more were checked and cut, with reasons, near the end.
Piquiyo is on the list, and Piquiyo is us. Same template as everyone else, third place.
If you only read this
- At seed the constraint is proof: short terms and one or two channels. At Series A it is capacity.
- Most of the list is Europe-based. Timezone overlap matters more than the country on the website.
- Seed-friendly terms are published: SeeResponse month to month, SaaStorm a three-month trial, Kexino fixed-price projects.
- Gripped and The Growth Syndicate publish stage or revenue floors. Check yours against them before booking a call.
- Six publish a price on their own site, from about €2,200 a month (SeeResponse) to about €43,600 (Kalungi full service). Ours starts from €3,000.
What changes between seed and Series A
Most of this section comes from the agencies themselves, from what they publish about who they’ll take on.
At seed, your constraint is proof. You don’t know yet which channel works, so the expensive mistake is signing a twelve-month contract for a full-function retainer.
So you want a short commitment and one or two channels, run by someone senior enough to say when it isn’t working. A few agencies publish terms built for exactly that.
- SeeResponse publishes month-to-month terms with no minimum.
- SaaStorm publishes a three-month trial with one-day cancellation.
- Kexino charges fixed project fees with no retainers at all.
Those terms exist because early-stage work changes direction, usually more than once.
At Series A, your constraint is capacity. You know roughly what works and you need more of it, run properly, across several channels.
Contracts get longer here, because the work compounds:
- Understory publishes six months for most engagements and four for earlier-stage companies.
- Gripped works on rolling contracts with three months notice.
- Refine Labs runs six-month minimums.
Where exactly one stage ends and the other begins, I’m not sure anyone knows. A large seed with a sales team already hired behaves a lot like Series A, and a small A with no repeatable channel behaves like seed. I’d go by what you know works, not by the name of the round.
Before you sign
Most terms here fall between three and six months. I’d be wary of a twelve-month lock with no break clause: that’s their risk, moved onto you.
Some agencies tell you up front that you’re too early. Believe them.
- Gripped states plainly that it does not typically work with pre-Series A or seed-stage companies.
- The Growth Syndicate states a client range of €1M to €350M in revenue.
- Growthcurve, which appears on many startup lists, requires a media budget of at least about €43,600 a month.
A floor on the agency’s own site saves you a discovery call. I wish more of them published one.
You won’t find a “startups should spend X% of revenue on marketing” figure on this page. Plenty of them float around, and we couldn’t source one we’d repeat.
The thirteen at a glance: price, stage and base
Prices are converted to euros at the ECB reference rate in September 2026: close enough to compare, not close enough to quote in a board deck. SaaStorm already publishes in euros.
| Agency | What you are buying | Stage they state | Published price | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalungi | Full B2B SaaS function | Pre-MVP to about €43.6M ARR, tiered | From about €43,600/mo full service | Kirkland, WA |
| Understory | Paid, GTM engineering and content as one | Post-PMF, “seed to IPO” | Not published | Not published |
| Piquiyo | Fractional marketing team | Post-seed | From €3,000/mo | Spain, serving Europe |
| The Growth Syndicate | Full B2B function, fractional lead | €1M to €350M revenue | Not published, hourly, cancel anytime | Amsterdam |
| Growth Division | Fractional growth team | Startups and scaleups | About €4,650 to €10,500/mo plus VAT | London |
| SeeResponse | Demand gen, month to month | Not stated | About €2,200 to €6,500/mo | McLean, VA |
| SimpleTiger | Search and AEO | Seed-funded and Series A | Not published | Sarasota, FL |
| SaaStorm | SEO and content for SaaS | Bootstrapped, seed, Series A | €4,000 to €10,000+/mo | Distributed, Europe |
| NoGood | Growth squad, premium | Not stated | Average above about €17,500/mo | New York |
| Gripped | Demand gen, Series A and up | Not pre-Series A or seed | From about €4,100/mo | London |
| The Branx | Brand and website | Seed to Series B | Not published | Cádiz, Spain |
| Kexino | Marketing for startups, fixed price | Not stated | Not published, no retainers | Pfettisheim, France |
| Skalski Growth | Embedded growth team | Not stated | Not published | Kraków, Poland |
The catch
Ad spend usually sits outside the fee. Where an agency publishes nothing, expect the first call to be a qualification call, with them sizing you up as much as you size them up.
How to pick a digital marketing agency for startups at your stage
Here’s where I’d start in the usual seed and Series A situations, using only what the agencies publish. A first cut, nothing more.
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Just raised, testing one channel | SeeResponse, SaaStorm, Kexino | Month to month, a three-month trial or fixed-price projects: easy to stop if it isn’t working. |
| Nobody understands what you do yet | The Branx, Kexino | Brand and website before channels. The Branx states seed to Series B. |
| You need someone to own the plan, in a European timezone | Piquiyo, Growth Division, The Growth Syndicate | Fractional teams in Spain, London and Amsterdam. The Growth Syndicate starts at €1M revenue. |
| Search is the growth case | SaaStorm, SimpleTiger | Both state seed-stage fit. SaaStorm prices in euros and offers a trial. |
| Series A, scaling what already works | Gripped, Understory, NoGood, Kalungi | Longer terms, bigger retainers, floors above seed. |
Before you email anyone, two checks. Size the fee against the rest of your plan (our note on B2B SaaS marketing budget and CAC payback walks through the maths), and if you’re weighing providers across Europe beyond this list, use the criteria in how to compare B2B GTM providers in Europe.
If you need the whole marketing function
Kalungi
The full B2B SaaS function, tiered by size from pre-MVP to about €43.6M ARR. Seed-stage founders get sent to the lower tiers.
- What they do: CMO-as-a-service, full-service strategy and execution, ABM, RevOps, branding, paid, content and SEO.
- Terms: retainer. Their FAQ suggests six to twelve months as a minimum for real impact.
- Price: not on the homepage, but their full-service page states a price from about €43,600 a month (converted from US dollars). The Syntropy tier for early-scale ventures under about €2.2M ARR and the T2D3 tier for pre-MVP and bootstrapped founders publish no figures.
- Where: Kirkland, Washington.
The T2D3 framework behind them has a published book. What I like more is the tiering: a seed-stage founder gets pointed at coaching and playbooks instead of the full retainer, which is an unusually honest way to handle fit.
Understory
For B2B SaaS that’s past product-market fit and already has some GTM motion running.
- What they do: paid media, GTM engineering with enrichment and outbound, LinkedIn content, creative and landing pages, HubSpot RevOps, run as one system.
- Terms: six months for most engagements, four for smaller or earlier-stage companies. Every engagement gets a pod with a named GTM engineer, an operations manager and a paid media strategist.
- Price: not published. Flat retainers scoped to the services selected.
- Where: not published. Their site carries a US phone number but no address.
They say “from seed to IPO”, then qualify it: post-PMF, with GTM motion already going. They also name the roles on your pod publicly. Few agencies do, so hold them to it.
Piquiyo
That’s us. Built for post-seed B2B companies that need a senior lead and a team that executes, before a full-time hire.
- What they do: positioning and GTM, demand generation, SEO and AI search, paid media, HubSpot and reporting.
- Terms: monthly retainer, fractional team.
- Price: from €3,000 a month, depending on scope.
- Where: Spain, working with teams across Europe.
A fractional team is a different purchase from both an agency and a fractional CMO. If you’re not sure which of the three you need, we wrote the comparison (linked further down), and it doesn’t end with “hire us”.
The Growth Syndicate
Amsterdam-based, for European B2B tech that wants strategy, execution and operations joined up. Pre-revenue seed sits below their floor.
- What they do: full-service B2B marketing, fractional CMO or Head of Growth, performance marketing, GTM planning, SEO, content, paid, ABM and RevOps.
- Terms: retainer with a senior team, cancel anytime with 30 days notice.
- Price: not published as figures. The model is stated: hourly rates, a minimum monthly commitment, no hidden fees.
- Where: Amsterdam.
Their stated client range is €1M to €350M in revenue, so a pre-revenue company won’t qualify. If you’re above it, cancel-anytime terms at this level of seniority are rare in Europe.
Growth Division
A London fractional growth team that publishes the price of each piece of the retainer.
- What they do: growth strategy and market validation, analytics and CRM setup, paid acquisition, organic and SEO, LinkedIn and outreach, content, CRO, fractional CMO.
- Terms: retainer with fractional specialists working as an extension of your team.
- Price: published, and unusually granular. Around €1,150 to €1,750 a month per channel expert, the growth strategist role at about €1,150 to €3,500 a month, and a typical retainer of about €4,650 to €10,500 plus VAT.
- Where: London.
Nobody else on this list breaks the retainer into its parts like this. You can model the exact team you’d be paying for before the first call, which I find more useful than one headline price.
If you need demand generation
SeeResponse
Demand programmes for early B2B teams, with no long commitment.
- What they do: GTM strategy, demand generation, ABM, outbound, lead gen, SEO, content, email, HubSpot and marketing ops, webinars and events.
- Terms: month to month from day one, with no minimum term.
- Price: published. Most retainers start between about €2,200 and €6,500 a month.
- Where: McLean, Virginia.
The lowest published entry point for a demand gen retainer here, plus the shortest commitment. If you’re at seed and still testing whether an agency helps at all, that pairing is the whole point.
NoGood
Premium growth squads for funded companies with real budget.
- What they do: AEO and SEO, paid growth across Google, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn, organic social, performance creative, earned media and digital PR, analytics and CRO.
- Terms: monthly retainer. They state they do not offer standardised packages.
- Price: published, as an average rather than a floor. Their site states an average retainer above about €17,500 a month.
- Where: New York, with offices in Miami and Dubai. No European office listed.
Healthcare, fintech and consumer sit next to SaaS and B2B in their client mix, so B2B SaaS is one segment of several. At that retainer level, I’d call them after Series A, not before.
Gripped
Demand gen for B2B SaaS and AI companies past about €2.3M ARR. They say, in writing, that seed isn’t for them.
- What they do: demand generation, ABM, paid search and social, SEO and GEO, B2B website design, delivered in 30-day sprints.
- Terms: rolling contract with three months notice.
- Price: published. From about €4,100 a month, with most marketing leaders investing about €9,300 to €14,000 a month.
- Where: London.
It’s right there on their site: they don’t typically work with pre-Series A or seed-stage companies. At seed, that’s one call you can skip.
If the growth case is search
SimpleTiger
Search specialists for seed-funded and Series A SaaS.
- What they do: SEO, answer engine optimisation, PPC, content, link building, digital PR, email and web design.
- Terms: packaged retainers tiered by stage.
- Price: not published as figures. Their framing is that packages start at 5% of revenue or funding at the respective growth stage.
- Where: Sarasota, Florida.
No price, but they segment by stage so openly that you can see roughly where you’d land anyway. That’s more than most agencies without a price page give you.
SaaStorm
SEO and content for bootstrapped, seed and Series A B2B SaaS, with a trial so you can test before committing.
- What they do: SEO, content marketing and writing, link building, demand generation, email, lead gen, fractional CMO, marketing ops, PPC and ABM.
- Terms: three-month trial with no long-term commitment and one-day cancellation during the trial, no upfront payment.
- Price: published in euros, in full. A ten-day Discovery assessment at €3,750, then monthly packages: Breeze €4,000, Gale €4,000 to €6,000, Tempest €6,000 to €10,000, Hurricane €10,000+. All include bi-weekly strategy calls.
- Where: fully remote, with team members in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ukraine, Germany and Poland, and prices quoted in euros first.
The most transparent price card of the thirteen, and the only published trial with a one-day exit. They’re fully remote, so there’s no head office listed.
If what you actually need is brand
If your problem is that nobody understands what you do, no amount of paid media fixes that first.
The Branx
Brand and website for tech startups from seed to Series B.
- What they do: brand identity, brand strategy, web design and development, motion design, product naming.
- Terms: not published.
- Price: not published.
- Where: Cádiz, Spain, serving clients across the US, Canada, UK and EU.
They state the stage range outright, “from Seed to Series B”, which almost no brand agency does.
Kexino
Fixed-price projects for funded startups and small B2B businesses. No retainer.
- What they do: branding and strategy, behavioural science consulting, design and content, social, SEO, marketing communications, CRO, lead generation, video.
- Terms: fixed-price projects. Their site says there are no long-term contracts, retainers or commitments, and no pre-built packages.
- Price: not published. Their stated approach is to work to your budget rather than publish a price list.
- Where: Pfettisheim, France. Founded 2008, with associates across nine countries.
“It’s not marketing unless it creates sales” is their line, and they say they turn down around fifteen inquiries a month. On a seed budget, a fixed-price project is usually easier to justify than a retainer.
Skalski Growth
An embedded growth team out of Kraków for B2B and SaaS companies in central Europe. No stage is stated, so check fit early.
- What they do: growth strategy, performance marketing, funnel development, analytics, martech implementation.
- Terms: embedded team model, described as joining your company rather than working for it.
- Price: not published.
- Where: Kraków, Poland.
Their site doesn’t mention a startup or funding-stage focus, so ask on the first call. I included them anyway, because central Europe is missing from nearly every list like this one.
Timezone check
A European team working with a US agency loses half the working day. You’ll notice it as slow feedback loops long before you notice anything wrong with the work.
Checked and left out
These three come up often enough on other lists that leaving them out needs a reason. Here are ours.
- Lake One appears on startup agency lists but has repositioned as a HubSpot partner for nonprofits, foundations and associations, with no startup offering on the site. Cut.
- Sparkpr is a tech PR and integrated marketing firm with twenty-five years behind it, but publishes no stage focus, no engagement model and no pricing, and PR is a different purchase from marketing. Left out rather than listed as something it isn’t.
- Growthcurve was checked and cut: they serve B2B startups but require a media budget of at least about €43,600 a month, which is outside this page’s range.
- Any price from another list. Several agencies here appear elsewhere with confident figures that are nowhere on their own sites. We didn’t repeat them. “Not published” is duller, and true.
Agency or fractional team?
Short version, since it’s really a separate question:
- An agency gives you execution, usually in a defined scope, with the strategic call still yours.
- A fractional team gives you a senior lead who owns the plan plus people who run it, at less than a full-time hire.
- A fractional CMO gives you the lead and nothing else, so execution stays your problem.
After a first round, a lot of teams buy execution before anyone owns the plan. We compared the options in fractional CMO vs marketing agency and when to hire a fractional chief marketing officer.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a digital marketing agency for startups cost?
Of the thirteen agencies here, six publish a price on their own site, and the spread is wide. Converted to euros, the published entry points run from about €2,200 a month at SeeResponse, through €4,000 at SaaStorm, about €4,100 at Gripped and about €4,650 at Growth Division, up to an average above about €17,500 at NoGood and about €43,600 for Kalungi’s full service. Piquiyo starts from €3,000 a month, depending on scope. Ad spend usually sits outside the fee. Where an agency publishes nothing, expect the first call to be a qualification call.
Should a seed-stage startup hire a marketing agency?
Sometimes, for a narrower job than most founders have in mind. What tends to work at seed is one or two channels tested properly, on a short commitment, by someone senior enough to tell you when it isn’t working. A full-function retainer bought before anyone knows which function matters usually doesn’t. That’s why several agencies here publish month-to-month or trial terms.
What contract length is normal for a startup marketing agency?
Three to six months is the common range. SeeResponse publishes month to month with no minimum, and SaaStorm a three-month trial with a one-day exit. Understory publishes six months, or four for earlier-stage companies. Gripped works on rolling contracts with three months notice. A twelve-month lock with no break clause is the one I’d push back on.
What is the difference between a startup marketing agency and a growth agency?
In practice the labels overlap, but the useful distinction is scope. A marketing agency usually covers positioning, content, brand and channels. A growth agency usually means paid acquisition, experimentation, analytics and conversion, and it cares more about how efficiently a message travels than about the message itself. If nobody understands your category yet, the growth agency will make an unclear message travel faster.
Agency or fractional marketing team: which is better for a startup?
Neither, really. They solve different problems. An agency is the right call when you know what needs doing and want it done well. If you also need someone to own the plan, and a full-time head of marketing is still a stretch, that’s what a fractional team is for. A fractional CMO makes sense once execution is covered and what’s missing is the senior call.
Do I need an agency in my own country?
Timezone matters more than country. A European startup working with a US agency loses half the working day, which shows up as slow feedback loops rather than bad work. Eight of the thirteen here are Europe-based: Piquiyo in Spain, Gripped and Growth Division in London, The Growth Syndicate in Amsterdam, The Branx in Cádiz, Kexino in France, Skalski Growth in Kraków, with SaaStorm distributed across Europe.
What I’d do this week
Cross off everyone whose published stage or revenue floor sits above you. At seed, that alone removes two or three names.
Then send the rest one question: what would you do in the first ninety days, and what wouldn’t you do? Read the second half of the answer twice.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on the shortlist, our free growth evaluation does that: we review your case, have a short call, and five working days later you get a 90-day roadmap for your pipeline, messaging and GTM. No sales pitch, and the roadmap is yours either way. If you’re earlier than that and still shaping the plan itself, start with B2B marketing strategy for post-seed startups.
Last updated: 1 October 2026. Prices change, so check each agency’s site before you call.